The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about reports the Council prepared for court. The law prevents us investigating what happens during court proceedings.
The complaint
Mrs and Mr X complained about the Council’s representations to court during two sets of proceedings relating to their grandchildren. They say the Council made false allegations about them based on hearsay, which biased the court’s decisions against them.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs and Mr X complained to us about the content of the Council’s report produced as part of court proceedings. The law prevents us from investigating what happens in court, which includes the content of councils’ reports. It is the court, not the Council or the Ombudsman, that can decide what is best for children, and we have no power to influence proceedings. It was open to Mrs and Mr X to raise their concerns as part of the proceedings.
The Council says it declined to respond formally to Mrs and Mr X’s complaint and instead offered them a meeting to discuss the court’s reasoning for its decisions. It says Mrs and Mr X did not take up this offer. It is not a good use of public resources for us to investigate complaints processes when we cannot investigate the substantive matter, so we will not consider the Council’s complaint-handling any further. In any event, the Council says it will now write to Mrs and Mr X to formally communicate its decision not to investigate their complaint and to extend the offer of a meeting again.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs and Mr X’s complaint because it is about the Council’s representations to court, which the law prevents us from investigating.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman